A Tale of Two Dorms

Lately, I have been living a fairy tale. I liken it most to Cinderella's story because it involves transitioning from a life of oppression and squalor to one of opulence and freedom. I am, of course, referring to my recent move from Lyons Hall to McGlinn.

In Lyons, I was forced to live in boarder-line uninhabitable conditions. 51 girls were forced to share three 45 year old showers, and four 58 year old toilets. On weekends, when Cathy our house keeper is off duty, you can imagine what that's like. Our bathroom gets so dirty, smelly, and generally disgusting, that I bet we could give Morrissey's shit holes a run for their money. Additionally, three of the stairs between Lyons' side door and my humble abode, 321, have loose tiles. I've only fallen down on each of them two or three times, and have not yet suffered any broken bones, thankfully.

When I began hauling my things into McGlinn, I certainly felt like a maiden rescued by a charming prince on a noble white steed. I glanced into the bathrooms and was shocked to see that sanitary facilities do exist on Our Lady's campus. Not only were there six toilets and eight showers, they were shiny, white, spotless, and built in 1997. More importantly, as I prepared to drag my futon from the ground level to room 427, I was relieved to find a fancy elevator. I hardly knew how to operate it, since I've only read about them in books and seen them on TV.

More important than the furniture and amenities, when I lived in Lyons, my existence was marred by hall staff. They fined me for petty violations daily - to the point where I had to go to Finny's instead of Fever on Thursday nights (couldn't pass up that reverse cover). My rector, ARs and RAs joined evil forces as a legion of stepmothers and sisters and branded my beloved group of friends "The Mafia," and did everything in their power to break our good spirits and frivolity.

Since I've moved to McGlinn, I tend to be as loud as I want at all hours of the day and night. Not a soul has criticized my lifestyle or my group of friends, and I feel completely free of all hall staff power trip driven oppression. McGlinn has truly been the prince charming to my social life.

Fairytales and Halloween Costumes

Fairytales have served many purposes in their history. These tales can educate, warn, or provide an escape for the reader. Halloween is the quintessential holiday when people dress us to become someone else. So it is fitting that there is a whole industry that is dedicated to the creation of fairytale inspired Halloween costumes. I began to research the gamut of fairytale costumes, and here is what I found.

These costumes are very tailored to women and young girls (which is not very surprising…the only time a man would dress up in a prince charming costume is if a girl made him). The costumes of the young female demographic are what one would expect. Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty…the costumes for these characters are all available, complete with matching shoes. They’re the kind of costumes that make adults say “aww” and cough up more candy. Although the stereotypical image of characters like Snow White have been popularized by Disney films, these costumes look like what you would typically expect from a costume or image from a fairytale.

On the other hand, we have the adult fairytale costumes. As college students, we already know that Halloween means something much different for the average young adult than it does for the average young child. These costumes are not only short and revealing, but they embody sex in a very obvious way. Somehow, the classic characters of (pictured here) “Little” Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Gretel, and Cinderella have transformed into tight-fitted, corseted, ridiculously high-heeled women with body-hugging clothes that don’t leave a lot to the imagination. Since when does Riding Hood wear laced up black platform boots and striped tights? Wouldn’t young Gretel from the original fairytale get cold while wearing that shoulder and leg-baring get-up? And don’t even get me started on the Snow White costume’s high red stockings and dangerously short yellow skirt. Oh also, Cinderella looks like she just came from shooting a porn film.

Obviously, the theme of making sexy and revealing Halloween costumes for women is not new, but it’s interesting to see how these costumes (which, by definition, is a set of clothes in a style typical of a particular country or historical period) barely relate to the original fairytales. I don’t know what’s more sad…the fact that these types of scandalous costumes are on the market, or that people our age actually buy them.

Rumpelstiltskin in "Shrek Forever After"

I went and saw the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" over Easter weekend and saw a preview for a fourth Shrek movie called "Shrek Forever After." This latest installment of the Shrek series is set to come out in May this year. It will have at least one new fairy tale character, Rumpelstiltskin, who is the new villain in this continuation of the story. From the previews that are out so far, Rumpelstiltskin is portrayed as being very tricky, manipulative, and power hungry.

Based on the previews for the movie, Shrek is experiencing some nostalgia and wants to remember what it was like being a "real ogre." In exchange for one day in Shrek's life, Rumpelstiltskin promises him a day of being a "real ogre" again. What Rumpelstiltskin doesn't tell Shrek is that the one day he plans to take from Shrek's life is the day that he was born. This of course changes everything about Far Far Away. Rumpelstiltskin is king, Fiona is the leader of a band of rebellious ogres and can't stand Shrek, Donkey is afraid of Shrek, and Puss in boots is fat and lazy (and wearing a pink bow instead of his usual attire).

I think that this portrayal of Rumpelstiltskin shows how he is commonly, and somewhat unfairly, considered an evil trickster. It is true that in the fairy tale "Rumpelstiltskin," he did plan to take the first born child of the miller's daughter/Queen (did she even have a name?), but he was very upfront about his plan unlike in the newest Shrek movie. Granted, it is a very odd and horrible request, especially since Rumpelstiltskin never explains why exactly he wants the child. But he did save the miller's daughter from being killed by performing the miraculous feat of spinning straw into gold. The miller's daughter made a deal with him, and failed to hold up her end of the bargain. If anyone should have been punished in that fairy tale it should have been the miller, who got his daughter into that horrible situation in the first place by falsely claiming that she could spin straw into gold.

Cool homonyms

This isn't my blog post, but I was working on my critical review and thought this was pretty cool.

Words substituted with near homonyms: The beginning of Little Red Riding Hood

"Ladle Rat Rotten Hut"

"dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist...."

How Fairytales are like Senioritis

As you probably know by now, I tend to write about things that are significant to my life or pertinent within culture at the time. That being said, let’s talk about the wonderful phenomenon affectionately known as “The Senior Slide”.

Now as is true with a fairytale, there is a certain element of magic that surrounds Senioritis. Before, we nervously obsessed about term papers, tests, quizzes, and daunting reading assignments. Somehow, magically, overnight drunks, extensive tanning and Frisbee on the quad during class, and something called body shots replaced these stressful pastimes. How do we explain this unreal transition? Why, it’s the Prince Charming known as the job offer.

Much like Cinderella, we toiled beneath icy stares of those who condemned us to menial labor; awful, heartless tasks like Managerial Economics and Calculus II. We prayed for deliverance, and my friends, that is exactly what we received. Princes and suitors of all shapes and sizes lined up at the proverbial ball known as the Career Fair, giving opportunities to even us lowly beings with 2.9 GPAs. When the glass slipper finally fit, well, it was 5 o’clock pretty much everywhere and all the time for the next week.

So I guess this is where the happy ending comes in. Four years worth of difficulty followed by this victorious grace period where we ride triumphantly off into the sunset. Well deserved. However, we never hear about what happens to princes and princesses after their “Happily Ever After’s”; it’s probably because they start office jobs in Columbus, Ohio.

Completely unrelated, here’s a video of a little girl who is clearly more knowledgeable about music than half of the civilized world:

http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/03/23

Taylor Swift's "Love Story"

Recently, whenever I think of fairy tales, I think of Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.” This unconscious association is troubling mainly because I know that “Love Story,” is missing many of the key elements of fairy tales, including magic. Nonetheless, I cannot seem to stop my brain my connecting fairy tales to “Love Story.” I think this happens for two reasons. First, the majority of fairy tales are stories about young men and women and their difficulties finding love. Similarly, “Love Story,” Swift’s modern retelling of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” follows a young man and woman in their desperate attempt to date and marry against their parents’ wishes. Secondly, the male characters in fairy tales are often active as opposed to their female counterparts, which are often passive. In “Love Story,” Swift sings, “Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone/I’ll be waiting;” in addition, she sings: “Romeo save me I’ve been feeling so alone.” In these lines, Juliet is the passive recipient of any and all affection Romeo is willing to give her. He is capable of saving her while her salvation can only come through him. One aspect of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” that Swift doesn’t translate to “Love Story” is the ending. In many of the fairy tales we read in the beginning of the semester, the young couple does not experience a “happily ever after” ending. This is similar to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” in which both Romeo and Juliet commit suicide and other postmodern fairy tales. However, in Swift’s “Love Story” the couple lives “happily ever after,” an ending typical of Disney’s fairy tales.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Hans Christian Anderson! Fairytale master!